Hotel guest letter and message boxes



July 30, 1957 s. 1. MIRKIN HOTEL GUEST LETTER AND MESSAGE BOXES 2 Sheets-Sheet. l

Filed March 29, 1954 IJuly 30, 1957 s. l. MIRKIN HOTEL GUEST LETTER AND MESSAGE BOXES Filed March 29, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 2,801,046 Patented July 30, 1957 Unite States PatentOlice HOTEL GUEST LETTER AND MESSAGE BOXES Sholem I. Mirkin, Cleveland, Ghia Application March 29, 1954, Serial No. 419,328

1 Claim. (Cl. 232-34) This invention relates to hotel guest mail and message boxes, and the main object is the provision of certain new and useful improvements in the construction of such boxes whereby greater convenience and security result for the guests and the hotel clerks duties and cares are substantially lessened.

The above broad as well as additional and more specific objects will be claried in the following description wherein characters of reference refer to like-numbered parts in the accompanying drawing. It is to be noted that the drawing is intended solely for the purpose of illustration and that it is therefore neither desired nor intended to limit the invention necessarily to any or all of the exact details of construction shown except insofar as they may be deemed essential to the invention.

Referring briefly to the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a hotel guest mail and message box embodying the improvements involved in the present invention, with parts broken away and partly 1n sectlon.

F Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2 2 of ig. l.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the rear, or lnnermost, end of the box.

F Fig 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4 4 of Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view, with parts broken away and partly in section, showing the front or outermost end of the box.

Fig. 6 is a sectional View taken on the line 6 6 of Fig. 4.

7 is a sectional view taken on the line 7 7 of 1g.

Referring in detail to the drawing, the box comprises top wall or roof 10, bottom Wall or floor 11, and side walls 12 and 13. A horizontal partition or shelf 14 is provided a short distance from the roof to provide a compartment 15 into which letters and messages may be deposited by the clerk, and for convenience in removing the letters by the guest, a number of longitudinal slots 16 may be provided in the shelf 14, as will hereinafter be more fully referred to.

As is customary in hotels, rows and tiers of guest boxes are provided. However, in using boxes of the kind herein presented, they would be mounted, in rows and tiers, at right angles to and extending through a wall or partition positioned with one side facing the clerk in his room or compartment and with the other side facing the hotel lobby. Merely by way of illustration, such a partition is indicated in phantom at 17 in Fig. 4, to show that the front ends of the boxes are exposed on the left of the partition or wall, and the rear ends on the right; the front ends are exposed to the lobby side of the partition and are thus available to the guests, while the rear ends are exposed only to the clerk. To facilitate following the description, the front end of the box is indicated at 18, and the rear end at 19.

The end wall or closure 20 at the rear end 19 of the box is provided with a horizontal slot 21 in alignment with and giving access to the compartment 15 but having a smaller depth than the latter and preferably provided along its lower edge with serrations 22; the low depth of the slot with or without the serrations makes it dilicult or impossible for the clerk to extract a lettter from the compartment 15 after he has inserted it through the slot 21. The rear wall 20 is further provided with a large opening 23, intermediate the height of which wings 24 and 24a are provided, integral with and at right angles t0 the wall 20.

A normally vertical plate 25 has aligned pins 26 and 27 extending from the side edges thereof intermediate its height. A threaded opening 29 in the wing 24 is in axial alignment with the pins 26, 27, and a plug 28 is screwed therethrough; the extremity of the pin 27 registers rotatably in an axial recess 30 in the plug. The extremity of the other pin 26 similarly registers rotatably in a recess 31, axially aligned with the recess 30, in the other wing 24a. The pins 26 and 27 are rigid in the plate. A pinion 32 of small diameter is rigid on the pin 26.

Normally spaced a short distance above the bottom 11 of the box, is a vertically movable horizontal floor 33, having, extending downward from its center point, a cylindrical peg 34 slidably mounted in an upstanding sleeve 35 on the iioor, the lower end of the sleeve being unobtructed to provide an air vent 36.

At the front end 18 of the box, a vertically hinged door 37 is provided, and it further has a lock 38 for which the guest will have the key. A letter slot 39 is provided through the top of the door, normally closed by a horizontally suspended hinged flap 40 inside the box, the slot giving access to the letter compartment 15 so that a caller may insert a note or message for the guest. After opening the door 37, the guest may remove letters from the compartment 15, and as an aid thereto he may insert one or more fingers partway through the shelf slots 16 to urge the letters forward. Also, with the door 37 open, he may insert his room key and deposit it on the movable door 33, which he will of course do on going out. To assure that the weight of the room key will move the oor downward the desired distance, for the purpose which will presently be set forth, the following mechanism is provided.

Two similar simple levers, having the form of a attened S, are fulcrumed in pedestals 42 mounted on the box bottom 11. The inner end of each lever is forked, as shown at 43. Equidistant from the longitudinal median line of the oor 33, aligned horizontal transverse pins 44 are suspended, by brackets 45, a short distance from the floor 33. The forked end of each lever 41 engages one of these pins. The other or outer end of each lever 41 is slidably mounted in a passage 46 through a iiat and relatively wide but thin weight 47; these outer ends of the levers are indicated at 41a. By means of long set screws 48 entering into contact with the ends 41a through the side of the weights 47, the weight may be positioned inward or outward from the fulcrum 42 as desired so as to obtain the proper balance against the weight of the oor, that is, to normally fall to the box iloor 11 but, when the Weight of the hotel key is added on the floor 33, to rise.

A vertical partition 49 is rigidly suspended from the shelf 14 near the rear end of the box, and its lower end is provided with spaced teeth 50 adapted to ride through spaced openings 51 in the oor 33 as the latter rises or falls. The partition 49 is a suicient distance forward of the plate 25 to enable the latter to swing through an arc of degrees, or rather, to rotate freely. On the rear end of the oor 33, at one side, an upstanding ear 52 is provided, in which the lower extremity of an upstanding slightly curved rack 53 is pivotally mounted,

and a Vspring 54 urges the rack into engagement, at all times, with the pinion 32. Thus, as the oor 33 falls i from the position shown in Figs. 2 and 5, the rack will rotate the pinion and hence also the plate 25.V The plate Vlegend Occupie shouldbejexposed to the clerk, that is, through the opening 23, and this will occur when ther Yscrew. 56 is so positioned that when the'tloor 33 is weighted with the room key, theiloor will descend only a suicient distance to turn' the plate through an arc of, 180 degrees from its normalposition in which it reads Occupied'. In other words, whenthe keyis in the box and the platereads Vacant `it signifies that the guest is not in the hotel, and when the key is lnot in the box the plate reads Occupied tosignify to the clerk that the guest is in his room. Hence, if anybodyasks for the guest the clerkV can see at a glance whether the guest is in` orV not. The normal position of the floor 33, lacking the added Vweight of the room key, is maintained to hold the plate in position reading Occupied" to the clerk, once the weights 47 have been properly positioned. The balance between the weighted levers 41 and the plate is ymaintained at all times, so that when the key is lifted olf theV iioor 33 and removed by the guest, the floor rises and the plate 25 swings through 18() degrees to read Occupied As an added assurance that a guest will not take the room key out of the hotel with him, it would be desirable to have it attached to a'good-sized block, and wherever the weight of the Vkey is referred to above it ofcourse includes the weight of such a block or the like.`V

The distance the door 33 can move downwardV isV 4 I claim: A box comprising top and bottom walls and side Walls, the front end of said box having a door normally closing the same, said box having a vertically movable raised l platform above said bottom wall, adjustable yieldable meansrnormally supporting said platform at a given distance above said bottom wall, the weight of said platform and the upward force of said yicldable means being normally in balance whereby upon the addition of a small weight such as, for example, that of a room key, on said platform'said platform is urged downward against said 1 upward force, the rear end of said box being open and having a plate rotatably mounted therein on a transverse shaft intermediate the height of the plate, means partly on said platform and partly on said shaft for rotating'said plate upon vertical movement of said platform, said plate being adapted to have legends on both sides thereof and being positioned vertical with one of the sides thereof facing rearward when saidV platform is in said normally raised position, means limiting the downward movement of said platform, said plate in the lowermost limit of the platform being positioned wth the opposite side Y thereof facing rearward, said box having a horizontal support rigidtherein near the top thereof, said supportV having a vertical partition extendingrdownward therefrom neary but spaced Y Y Ving a plurality of transversely spacedY openings therethrough in the plane of said partition, the lower end of said partition having teeth'formed thereon slidably registering in said transverse openings, said partition thus at all times blocking access into the box through the rear end thereof regardless of the angular position of said plate with respect to the vertical.

References'Cted in the tile of thisr patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 723,184 Reisert Mar. Y17, `1903 761,939 Bevan June 7, 1904V 790,529 Salo May- 23, v1905 1,298,345 Johnson Mar. 25, 1919 1,316,023k 'Y Franklin Sept. 16, 1919 

